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Background

The taskforce on the Management of Service Portfolios (TF-MSP) is an open forum for all GÉANT Association members plus organisations and individuals from the wider constituency of the research and education community. TF-MSP discusses and disseminates information and experiences on the strategic and business aspects of NREN and community activities.

At the November 2014 meeting of TF-MSP there was strong encouragement from all present that the GÉANT Association should become much more active in providing procurement support for the NRENs (and possibly their constituencies).

It was agreed that TF-MSP should take some immediate responsibility for ensuring some concrete steps are taken to create a community forum to work on the topic of procurement support as a matter of urgency.

It was clearly demonstrated during the November meeting presentations[1] and elsewhere that many centralised, collective or joint procurement have been or are currently underway within the European Research and Education community[2] and that these result in significant tangible benefits.

There are three criteria for a successful joint procurement:

• a legal ability to use the resulting contract in each of the participating countries
• a match in procurement requirements
• a match in timescales

Whilst it is clear that large aggregate procurements will bring efficiencies and financial benefits, even smaller initiatives undertaken collectively under the GÉANT Association umbrella should be able to achieved more favourable terms and conditions than could be achieved by single NRENs acting alone. This might be achieved by the negotiation of Framework Agreements for example.

The remainder of this paper details the issues, requirements and proposed actions.

Proposed Actions

• Create a dedicated email distribution list to enable topic-focussed discussions

• Create a wiki space for collaboration and as a repository for information

• Promote the fact that this initiative has been launched

• Encourage interested parties in the community to actively participate

• Hold a one-off (video) meeting as soon as possible to:

• • Document the benefits and support for this initiative

• • Agree a suitable vehicle for the work (TF-MSP sub-group, new Special Interest Group (SIG) or something else)

• • Develop the initial requirements document below into a concrete action plan.

Initial requirements to be explored

• How does the community minimise procurement costs and get the benefit of economies of scale and/or access new supply markets?

• How can the community best aggregate demand from around its constituent parts:
  • What are the appropriate legal basis mechanisms and processes required to undertake such activities?
  • Which parts of the community can participate?
  • What products and/or services would benefit from such an approach?
  • What are the time-frames and estimated budgets of such procurements
  • What will be the costs and benefits from such an activity

• What are NRENs precise requirements/expectations/benefits from this approach?

• How do we most effectively keep a watching brief on the state of EC procurement directives and national interpretations and make this available as a resource to the community?

• Can some dedicated resources and effort be found from the GN4 project or elsewhere?

• • GN4 SA6: Procurement expertise?
  • GN4 SA7: Supply chain & delivery vehicle?
  • Elsewhere?

Resources